Image generated by AI
Since the beginning of human communication, we have exchanged ideas and thoughts from generation to generation. In the beginning I believe that the campfire was the place of choice to do this. Stories were told, advice was given and many lessons were taught to the young and innocent. In the evening, after the sun retreated from the day, there was time to sit and learn, beneath the stars, from the thoughts of others. All early human history was passed down with stories and verse to improve the lives of the children and the survival of the tribe.
Due to human innovation and creativity, things have changed over the last 10,000 years. I think the creation of script and even cave paintings were the beginning. From this humble beginning came written language. Much later came the ability to write large amounts of information in the form of scrolls or later on, books. Books were prized possessions and not a part of the common man’s experience. Innovation was really starting to kick in and some guy created the printing press. This is when things realty rocked into high gear! Although books were still hard to get hold of, they were becoming much more accessible to the common man. Of course, I’m sure there was someone back then who proclaimed that books would be the ruin of civilization. I guess in some weird ways he was right, it was the end of ignorance and lack of access to knowledge. I’m pretty sure this was not a bad thing, but it certainly was a change in the direction of humankind!
With that said let’s move into the modern world, so complex it defies full understanding. As you know, in the early 1900’s we began to dabble with computers. They were big relatively simple machines that were able to solve simple math problems. Some minds were able to envision a future world of what computers might become. Some predicted doom and others saw a rosy future with sidewalks and flowers beside them. As is always the case, we landed somewhere in the middle and that is what I want to talk about.
So, here we are in the middle, with AI, robots and self-driving cars. Of course, all these innovations are tightly wound together in a world where communication and data are the kings. Although all these things hold the promise of many incredible improvements for mankind, in the back of my mind I keep hearing BEWARE. I, like many of you enjoy the many benefits of modern technology but I am seeing dark alleys that cause me a little concern. One dark alley that raises the most concern is our children. Many of them were born in this highly technical world. Although there is much research being done in this area, we still have no idea where we are going and more importantly, where our children are going.
With a little thought it is easy to see that almost all inventions generally lead to an easier life for humans. Whether it is fire or all the way to airplanes, they all have made our life easier. Many educated people foretold of a future where everyone is becoming physically weak due to our increasing dependence on machines. Early inventions tended to help us with physical endeavors while later inventions have been more of the cerebral type. The most invasive and powerful invention in the history of mankind is the mobile phone. Couple this with the ever-increasing invasiveness of social media and you have a juggernaut of immense size. Today we are inventing devices that replace the need to think. Ask any 5th grader you know what 7 X 8 is and he will grab his phone to get the answer. If you have a difficult calculus problem to solve, ask CHAT GPT. We could easily become a world of idiots!
Please understand that I am not negating the exciting promise these new inventions hold, but I worry that somehow the human being we have come to know (and sometimes fear) is going to change. How we are going to change is anyone’s guess. As usual, I do not have answers, only avenues of thought that we as a society better start thinking about, and the answers are not on CHAT.
You can go to the old blog (Serendipity) with this link. http://streisel.wordpress.com
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